Learning something new

Lots of new things going on over in my part of the world.  In March, I got a new job in a totally new field.  And the new job has pretty strict internet usage rules so no blogging over my lunch break, like I did at my old job.

I'm about halfway into my "Summer of Fun" and man, is it exhausting.  Last summer, I had to say no to so many things because of IM Boulder training.  It sucked.  So this year, I'm not saying no unless I have a really good reason.  So far, I've gone to two concerts at Red Rocks, did a free SUP demo class, raced IM Boulder 70.3 (my only serious race of the year), ran a bacon 6k (seriously, there was bacon at the aid station, and yes, it was about as gross as you'd expect) and my newest thing is learning to mountain bike.

As someone told me on facebook: you're from Colorado, shouldn't you already know how to do that?

Sadly, I have no idea what I'm doing on a MTB.  And it shows.  My poor legs are covered in bruises and a really cool 3" scratch across my shin from where my pedal bit me as I flew over my handlebars last Sunday.  Honestly, my current goal is to make it through a ride without crashing.

So this process has been interesting. And by that I mean frustrating.

How many times have you learned a physical skill in your adult life?  Like skiing or snowboarding or MTB?

This is my first real time learning something as an adult, and wowzers, it sucks.  I'm simply not used to not having the physical ability to do what I want.  My brain tells me I can do it (*poof* up the mountain) but my body quickly tells me I need to start with the basics.

I did a couple really easy rides.  Like the worn dirt next to the paved bike path or a washed out dirt road.  Then I got the idea to do these women's rides that were advertised as "beginner".  One night it was 3 Sisters, with something stupid like 750 ft climbing in 1.5 miles, with switchbacks and rocks and water dams (ie big logs).  I lost count after 5 crashes.  And I broke my sunglasses. Then the next week, I did another women's ride (different group, different trail) and it was horrible.  3 crashes in less than 10 minutes left me angry crying on the side of the mountain in front of complete strangers.  It was awful.  I think the girls thought I was crying because I scuffed up my knees and was bleeding, so they showed me all of their elbow scars.  I was really crying because I was ANGRY.  When I get really frustrated or angry, I cry.  Awesome, right?  so I'm angry crying and the race coordinator has no idea how to handle me and gave me a little (and probably gentle) talk about how the girls in the group do not indulge in negative self talk (I was probably muttering something about how terrible I am at MTB).  I think I responded with "I'm just being realistic and what will really help me is silence" and then I pushed my MTB up the hill.  I was *pissed*  And frustrated, and embarrassed.

I am not used to struggling athletically.  Which is kinda funny because until a few years ago, if you called me athletic, I would have laughed.  Funny how perspective changes.

My coach is also learning how to MTB (she actually broke her wrist and her hand - different arms - riding something too hard for her) so we've been having lots of chats about actually being beginners and accepting our beginnerness.

And I've really committed and purchased this:

Which is way more bike than I intended to buy for a hobby I "might" like.  So I'd better like it.....

Last Thursday, Will and I went to the skills park by our house:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ua8xCbcOu4

And it was scary.  I could do the flow tracks because both wheels stayed on the ground, but any elevated ramp or bump was SCARY!!  Will's answer: just ride faster

This answer is not filed away for next winter when he doesn't want to follow me on his snowboard because it looks hard.

I ended up being able to do all the bump-ramps as long as I was squared up as I entered them.  And I just gave everything else a big noooo.  Including the teeter-totter, which I could probably do, but then Will said it was easy to go too fast and ride off the thing before it tottered over.  Nice!

Yesterday I took a 4 hour MTB clinic.  It was supposed to be a 2 hr beginner class, but that ended up being just parking lot drills.  I wanted trail experience, so I signed up for the 2 hr intermediate. (and don't get me into how I packed for a 2 hr adventure [food/water] and got pretty bonky riding up... sigh).

The instructor said I was doing really well, considering I've ridden a total of 6 times.  In my head, I should be *so much better*.  I'm an Ironman, I can do anything.  Right?

So the lesson here is to take things easy, master some basic skills, try to not get too frustrated, and have courage that I'll be tearing things up in no time.  Or at least functional enough to not die during my Xterra in August...

Taper Blahs

I don't know what it is, but I am so. over. swimbikerun.  I really don't remember feeling this way for my other two Ironman races.  IMTX was my first and I was nervous/excited.  IMCDA was my second and I was excited and ready to have a great day.  This year, I'm just a big old shell of blah.

I think that the main reasons for this are:

• I'm not scared of this race.  Its not the hardest thing I've ever done.  Apparently I need scary to get excited.
• Its hot.  I got snowed on while training for IMTX.  And IMCDA was in late June, so it wasn't really that hot.  I really do not like the heat.  It just sucks the life out of me.  And IM Boulder will be hot.  So to prepare, I've been purposely training in the heat.  And to make things even more "fun" I've been cruising around town with my windows rolled up and my AC off, for even more "heat".  I have been purposely roasting myself for 2 months, all for race prep.  Yuck.
• Its hot.  That warrants a second mention.  I just do not get excited to be out in the heat. 

Its 6 days before IM Boulder.  I haven't even begun to go through my gear.  Its almost like if I start laying it out, I'm admitting that the race is here.  I'm not sure I want to the race to be here, but I'm pretty sure I want the training to be over.

See, blah!

I have had little twinges of excitement here and there.  Every once in a while, usually while riding my bike, I get a flashback of CDA and the residual excitement from that incredible day.  Today the butterflies have started up a tiny bit.

I've put in the training and I'm ready.  Now my job is just to rest up, pack up my gear, and crush it.  Hopefully.

I survived peak weekend

It wasn't exactly fun or pretty, but I got it done and that's what counts.  I always need to remind myself that the training needs to be very hard so race day, by comparison, is "easy".  Soul crushing is kinda required for training.  And yet, I keep signing up for these things...  Last week was my biggest volume ever, at 21:15.  Fri-Sat-Sun was huge, with nearly 16 hours of exercising.  (and yes, I know that's ridiculous)

so here's a rundown on the weekend:

Friday

4,000 m pool swim.  I was nice to myself and "slept in" to 5:30 AM and was in the pool by 6:10.

3.5 hr bike ride.  Coach said hilly, I asked if my neighborhood was good enough and she said Deer Creek. Against my better judgement, I loaded up my crap and drove to DC to ride.  I did a warmup loop around Chatfield and felt pretty good.  I started up DC and immediately felt blah.  My heart rate was soaring (165+) and I wasn't anywhere close to the hard stuff.  Finally after stopping twice, I pulled the plug 30 min into the climb (usually 1:40) and drove back home to finish my ride.  2 hours of riding around my neighborhood (with a few big hills) and I was feeling fine.  No idea.  It was hot and I wasn't in a happy headspace.  I was also cranky because if I would have just ridden from home, I would have been done with my workouts ~2 hours earlier in the day.  But I had to give DC a try.  I pulled the plug because my HR was just too high and I didn't want to put myself in a hole on day 1 of a really hard 3 day training weekend.

This day was capped off my a 45 min run.  Fortunately it had started to sprinkle and the temps went down.  My run was actually ok and I saw a tiny baby deer.  Very cool.

Will was really awesome and went to the store for dinner supplies while I was out training.  He made dinner (grilled elk/beef burgers, sweet potatoes, zucchini) and never once said anything about how I killed his 4th of July.  He is amazing and I will keep him.  I started getting ready for bed around 9:30 and was greeted with the local firework show outside my bedroom window.  So I got to see some fireworks, all while sitting on the arm of a couch.  Not too shabby.

Saturday

1:15 swim at the Gravel Pond.  I got up at 6:30 (pretty late for a weekend anymore... sigh), made sure I was out there at 7:15 to wrestle into my wetsuit and be one of the first swimmers in the water at 7:30.  I started out at a good pace but got tired 45 min in.  And I kept getting lost.  I know, its a POND.  But sighting is really hard,  They have a few buoys to the halfway point and then you're on your own.  I try to use rock formations up on the foothills as a reference point, but that only works until the trees block them out of sight.  And using trees is challenging, since most trees look the same when you're glancing at them through foggy goggles for a half a second every 10 strokes or so.  Still, I got it done and the pace was ok.  Practice OWS are always slower than race day anyways, mainly because of the poor sighting conditions and because I have to swim by myself.

Immediately after the swim I had a 2:30 run.  I originally wanted to run early to avoid the heat, but I was specifically told to run after to run in the heat.  Great.  Also: blech.  A few days prior, out of the blue a friend sent me a text offering to run with me.  I immediately took her up on that offer and I am so thankful to her.  I tired brain couldn't properly calculate the time I was supposed to arrive at the Waterton parking lot to meet her (I told her 9 AM when it should have been 9:30).  She's so nice that this wasn't a problem, she just did an out and back and found me in the canyon.  And no surprise, it was hot.  I think I did about as much running as I did walking.  I didn't let my HR get above 155-160 and took a ton of walking breaks to get it down to 140-145.  I kept apologizing the whole time because this wasn't really running, and Amy was just so nice and was happy to get out of the house and have some adult time (she's got a 1.5 yr old).  I was just thankful because she talked my ear off and distracted me from my cranky thoughts.  If I was by myself, I know I would have been beating myself the whole time about all the walking and thinking about how Boulder was going to be a shit show with the heat.  Instead, we had a nice conversation and ran across 3 groups of bighorn sheep:

On the negative side, I ran farther last weekend in ~20 min less time (I also started 3 hours earlier and it was probably 20 deg cooler).  On the plus side, my hydration was just right and my legs felt good.  It took me 2:38 to go 11.7 miles, which is SLOW.  But in all honestly, if I could hold that pace in Boulder in 85 degree temps, I would be ecstatic.  That would be a 6 hr marathon, which isn't super fast, but I would take it in hot conditions.

I got home, got cleaned up, and Will took me for pie milkshakes.  Yes.  There's a place by our house that will take a slice of pie (you pick the kind of pie) and blend it with vanilla ice cream to make a milkshake.  I'd been wanting to go there for a year but couldn't justify the calorie-bomb.  This was my weekend.  It was delicious.

cherry for me, pecan for Will.  I don't know what Will did to justify the calories (or his 2 naps that day) but I wasn't going
to question it.

Sunday

This was my 6 hr bike ride.  The forecast was a high of 95.  Yay?  Torture is always better with friends, and I had a nice little group with me.  Thank goodness.  We did 2 loops of Harvest Moon, which is a local 70.3 course.  Its all exposed, which means sun, heat, and wind.  With hills!  This ride isn't exactly fun, but the nice part is that you come back to your car after 45 miles and can re-stock supplies.  And you can take a dip in the Res afterwards if you need a cool down.

We started at 7 AM and it was already windy.  The first 20 miles are a nice, gradual downhill which makes for a nice warmup.  My legs didn't really want to play, my adductor kept getting tight and I had to stretch it 3 times in the first 50 miles.  It was also pretty windy on the first loop, with a headwind on the way back to the cars, which also has all the hill climbing.  I didn't want to blow my legs out on the first loop of a long day so I took the hills super easy.  Like e-a-s-y easy.  I never do that.  But I also didn't want to make my adductor worse.  For another fun feature, at mile 25 I started to literally dry heave on my nutrition (Bonk Breakers peanut butter chocolate chip).  Not cool, especially 1/4 of the way through a long day and when most of your ride nutrition is Bonk Breakers.  I really don't know what the deal was.  I made myself nibble on the bar for the way back (a little over an hour).  Back at my truck I ate some Tums (randomly in my gear bag) and swapped out my nutrition to other stuff.  I barely had enough honey stinger chews and SunRype bars to get me through the 2nd half of the ride.  I tried to eat more of the pb-cc flavor bars and each time resulted in gagging.  I think they're too sweet when its hot out.  The PB&J ones were a bit easier to get down.  This was my planned race nutrition, so I really don't know if this was a fluke or if this will keep happening.  What I do know is that I have Tums in my special needs bag (or in a pocket), as that saved my ass.  And I need to have back-up nutrition if things go south.  I get tired of eating HS chews all day, but they don't take much effort to get down and my stomach seems to like them.

The first loop was a big MEH (wind, nutrition, legs) but you just have to let go of that and keep moving.  The second loop, fortunately, was much better.  It was hotter (way hotter) but there's something nice about knowing its your last loop.  But holy crap, it was hot.  Thoughts on the last 25 miles of the 2nd loop were something like this:

ok its hot, but I'm drinking ok, and I'm still on my bike.  I've got this.
why am I riding in front of the other 2 people I'm with? (they were way ahead of me on loop 1)
really guys, you can pass me if you want
response: I couldn't pass you if I tried
hills are starting, legs actually feel decent.  Sweet!
and here's the heat.  Wow its hot.
whyyyyy do I keep signing up for hot races?  didn't I learn my lesson during IMTX?
I never want to do Kona, ever
I really don't want to do Boulder, either.  This is horrible
eat, drink, eat drink, pedal.
wow, its hot
I just want to go sit in the Res when this ride is done.
ok, last big hill, now its 5 miles to my truck.  I can do this
wow, I'm actually out of water.  I went through 4 hrs worth in less than 3 hours time.  crap its hot
oh yay, my truck.
oh crap, I've got another 45 min or at least 12 miles.  I guess I need to suck it up and just get it done.  It won't be easier on race day....

We finished the 2nd loop and got back to our cars.  Brian was totally out of water.  I had one bottle left.  Melanie had 2 ice cold cans of Coke and gave one to me and Brian to split.  It was magic.  I don't drink Coke anymore, but this was amazing.  And it made me think of coke slurpees for the rest of the ride.  I had another 12 miles, Brian had 9 miles (he did some looping to keep track of us earlier in the ride).  Both Brian and Melanie were out of water, so we rode into the Res to get more water.  At that point, Melanie started overheating and was having issues completing sentences, so she went to go sit in the Res and didn't finish the ride.  Brian and I decided to suck it up and get 100 miles done.  We rode to the traditional left turn at Watkins Road, and that easily got us to 100 miles.  We had some clouds on those last miles, and I swear, the temps dropped at least 10 degrees in the shadow.  It felt so good.

Then we were done for the day.  It was Brian's first century ride, it was my 2nd hottest century ride ever.  Overall time wasn't too bad, considering the heat.  I drank 8 bottles in 6 hours - normally I'd drink 5-6.  No slurpee on the way home, either.  I got Jamba Juice - I figured it had a bit more nutrition.

Random lessons from the ride:

• I need back-up nutrition available.  I want to use real food but I just don't know if I can actually eat it.  I do know that I can get HS chews down and I have a bazillion SunRype fruit snacks that I can also eat.  (I actually raided my truck stash for loop 2 to ensure I had enough calories).  I'll have to be smart with Special Needs and maybe have extra nutrition stashed on my bike.
• We all drank WAY more than we had planned.  Holy crap it was hot.
• Osmo seemed to work.  I only had a slight heat headache.
• Calories, while low, seemed to be ok.  I was a bit wobbly, but I think that was from the heat, not lack of calories.  I ended up eating 3-5 chews every 30 minutes (or maybe ever 15) and I tried to nibble on the PB&J Bonk Breakers in between to get some more "food" in.  The PB&J ones went down a bit better than the choc ones.  I may just have to play with flavors on the course during the race (they have 4 flavors) and see what works.
• Legs actually felt pretty good.  We got done and it was hot, but my legs felt like they could do more.
• Bike comfort was actually good on the 2nd lap.  Maybe I was distracted by the heat, but I really didn't have any "get me off my bike" thoughts.  I do love my bike.

Closing Thoughts

• I am really thankful for my friends, who kept me company for most of this crazy weekend.  It really helped to keep the negative thoughts out of my head.
• That pie milkshake was awesome.  I may have one again this coming weekend.
• I may need to let go of any time goals for Boulder.  If its hot, I really can't have pace expectations. It becomes more of a "lets keep moving" situation.  I'd like to go under 14 hours but it all depends on the heat.  And I need to be ok with that.
• On Monday, I slept in until 9 AM and took a 1 hour nap.  I wasn't sore, which is weird, but I was TUCKERED.
• I have the most awesome husband ever.  Not once did he complain about how I ruined his holiday weekend.  Instead, he took care of me.  I don't know what I did to deserve someone so awesome but I am incredibly thankful for him.
• I think I'm ready for one more hard week and then taper.  I can do this. :)

Peak Week Crabbiness

I am ridiculously crabby and I need to get over it.  I signed up for this race and to do well, I need to just put my head down and get to work.

What I didn't think about when I signed up for IMBoulder is that I effectively killed my summer.  There's not much free time for fun when your race is Aug 3rd.  And really, its the missing out on stuff that's making me crabby.  Instead, I should be focusing on the experiences and fun I am having while training in Colorado in the summer.  As far as training places go, CO is hard to beat.

The view during my 12 mi run last weekend.  

Instead of focusing on how strong I'm getting and how pretty my training rides/runs/swims are, I'm focusing on what I'm missing out on.

Case in point: this weekend. The 4th of July.  A holiday weekend with bbqs and camping and fun.  And what will I be doing?  s/b/r'ing, sleeping, eating, and spending time on the couch with my feet up.

Really, I would have mentally been ok if it weren't for a random invitation to a BBQ on Friday from 11-2. There's really no way I can go, because I'll be s/b/r'ing for nearly 6 hours.  And who has a bbq party that ends at 2?  In all honestly, this is just IM peak week fatigue getting to me.  The invite was from a HS friend who lives in town but I never see. I can't say I've been invited to his house for a party ever.  I may have invited him, not sure, but he's never been over our way.  Essentially, he's not a close friend, but I am tweaked that I can't go to his BBQ.  I think its more the fact that I can't do something holiday-ish because I have 6 hours of s/b/r.  If it was any other Friday, I wouldn't even be complaining.

Then to add insult, I might not even get to stay up late enough to enjoy fireworks.  I have a 1:15 swim and a 2:30 run.  I was going to run first and then swim, which meant that I needed to start running at 5:45 AM (and leave my house at 5:15).  Yep, no fireworks with that alarm time.  My coach informed me that I need to swim first and then run, and the pond doesn't open until 7:30, so I won't need to leave my house until 6:45. Which makes firework viewing more likely.  But then I'm cranky that I have to run for 2:30 in the heat.

I was talking to my best friend yesterday, trying to arrange weekend plans for July 19th.  She's coming here and doing a memorial service for her deceased husband in the mountains.  This is not ideal timing for me (time or money) to spend a weekend in the mountains.  But she's my sister, I'm Auntie E to her kids, and my ass needs to be up there for support.  But the logistics are stressing me out.  I've got Saturday morning blocked out for her, but I need to be s/b/r'ing the rest of the time.  Not to mention getting sleep and eating properly.  The poor thing caught me yesterday afternoon when I was coming home from work and just got a very unhappy version of me.  I recognized that, took a nap, and and my mood was better.  Sorta.  She at least saw my panic and booked me my own room at the lodge instead of asking me to share a room with a stranger in a house full of kids, so I'd have my space and some quiet for sleep.  The food concerns me a bit (I will be in a hotel room for 4 days but can walk over to their cabin to cook).  And the logistics will be interesting.  Not to mention the pressure of spending time with people at a time when I'm at my most selfish and I quite literally don't have very much of me to give.  Just just just, but but but.... ugh.

I just need to survive the next ~3+ weeks and get to taper.

Just one of those days

Today was a day where very few things went right.  But boy am I happy those things did go right.  I had my usual Friday swim-bike day (no run, thank goodness).  Swim practice was ok.  Then I was going to meet a swim team friend at 9 AM to ride up Deer Creek Canyon (13.5 miles and 3k ft climbing).  She had a 2 hr ride, I had a 3 hr.


I left the house and immediately realized my nutrition was on the counter.  Turned around, retrieved it, and also discovered that my Garmin was sitting on my desk in the home office.


The whole drive over (a whopping 30 min) I wanted to pull over and take a nap.  I was so tired that I missed my exit.


I parked, got my bike set up, and quickly realized that my Garmin was d-e-a-d DEAD.   Ugh.  Ok, backup plan was to set the timer on my phone and map things out afterwards.


My friend shows up, we start riding.  I do NOT feel well, my stomach is revolting and my perceived HR (dead Garmin = who knows what it really was).  I gave it 25 min and a few steep-ish hills and I knew I wouldn't be going all the way to the top.  I probably could have made it, but it really wouldn't have been fun.  We stopped, agreed to do something else.  I checked my phone and it decided to shut off.  Lovely.  So no time.


We rode for 2 (estimated) hours, I returned my friend to her car and I continued onward. 


I stopped to refill my speedfill with my rear bottle of Osmo and dumped a good 1/4 of it on the ground.  Awesome.


About 5 minutes later, I heard an incredibly loud POP and realized my rear tire had exploded.  The force was so great that it blew the tire off the rim.  The tube had a good 3-4 inch gash along the rim side.  I have no idea what happened.  And I hadn't swapped out my emergency supplies after Boise, so I still had my very expensive 80 mm tubes.  I took my time and successfully fixed my rear tire.  Hurray.


I rode on and ran out of Osmo about 15 minutes of my car.  Lame.


And then I got back to my car, went home, and took a nap.


So, the good parts were that I did my time on the bike, even if I didn't do the specified route (I was short ~1k of climbing).  And I did a good job of fixing my flat.


Hopefully I got all of the cycling bad mojo out of my system now.  It seems like I hit all the highlights in this one ride.

Ironman 70.3 Boise Race Report 2014

What is it with this race and me?

In all honesty, I'm being ridiculously hard on myself here and I should just get over it and be happy.  This was my 2nd fastest 70.3.  I did really well on the run.  I did some really good trouble shooting.

But I didn't couldn't race to my potential and I'm crabby about that.  After 2013 being the "Year of PRs" its really hard for me to NOT PR, especially when I'm in even better shape than I was last year.  I know logically that PRs are rare and hard to come by, but I knew that I was capable going into Boise.

So, the race report:

Pre-Race
There's nothing like a ton of driving to make for an awesome pre-race set up!

We left Denver at 6 AM on Thursday and arrived in Kimberly, ID around 4:30.  We did NOT get pulled over for driving Greenie and potentially having our 15 gallons of wedding homebrew (for a family wedding the following weekend) confiscated or us being fined in Utah for bringing beer into the state illegally.

Idaho!  With some other tri-dorks stopping to admire the sign.

I went on a 30 min shake out run on country roads.  My mother-in-law was super sweet and prepared a (mostly) gluten free dinner.  She even quizzed me on whether or not dinner rolls fit into my diet:

Do you eat white bread?
No, I don't eat anything that's bread or made with a grain.
hmm, I was going to make dinner rolls as a treat
that's fine, make them for everyone else.  I just won't touch them.
no, I don't eat any bread period.

And then she made "fancy" asparagus with a lemon grenata and covered it in ...  breadcrumbs.  *sigh*  She put a ton of effort into this dish and it was clearly directed at me and my food snobbery so I ate it.

Friday we slept in a bit and left her house at 10 AM for our second destination in the Idaho state tour - the family ranch by Mountain Home.  We got there around noon, unloaded our car, and I went on a 30 min shake-out ride by the ranch.  It was WINDY and I just hoped race day would be a bit kinder.  Also: Merlin does not like going over cattle guards.  Ouch.

on the ranch - one of my happy places on this planet
also: my sweet husband got this shirt for me because it matched my bike.

I got done with the ride, my husband picked me up (I had to drive to pavement) and we went to the ranch to say high to people and we were treated with lunch.  Awesome!  Then it was time to head to Boise (1 hr away) and do check in and bike check.

Check-in was nothing exciting.  This year it was in a park instead of the local arena, which was nicer.  The check-in process was the least-enthusiastic I'd ever experienced.  The volunteers were just flat.  I was handed my packet by a guy and just sat there, expecting him to go through it with me and put the bracelet on.  He just stood there, avoiding eye contact, while 2 other volunteers were helping racers.  It was just awkward.

Bike check-in at Lucky Peak was no biggie either.  We stayed focused and were back at the ranch around 5:30.  Then it was feet up time!

Race morning is weird for this race since the race starts at noon.  I got up at 7, ate some FeedZone bacon/egg rice cakes (2.5 servings, probably 500 cals), had some coffee.  At 8:30, we left the ranch with the goal of getting to T2 to drop by bag around 9:30 and catching the bus up to Lucky Peak by 10.  I think everyone had that idea, and they maybe had 2 buses going, which made the line HUGE.  They finally got their act together and pulled all the athletes into one line for buses to ensure we'd make it up there before T1 closed (how nice of them!).  Will was left behind and I just hoped he would make it up there.  I sat with a really nice lady for the ride up.  I got to Lucky Peak around 11 and had ~45 min to get things set up and chit chat a bit.  I found Sonja and chatted to her for a bit.  I was happy to see that she's a friendly (but FAST) racer and was happy to talk for a bit.  (She also killed the race - 5th woman overall, including pros).

Will found me and I left transition and we went to find a shady spot to hang out.  Lucky Peak is very open with no shade to be found.  I saw the ONE 10x10 tent by the swim start and somehow wiggled my way in there.  It was a smart move, as once I wiggled my wetsuit on (which isn't easy to do when you're hot and sweaty!) I was a roasting little penguin.

The good thing about the pavement being so hot was that the 60 degree water felt AWESOME once you got in it.  All the ladies were pretty chill, no major jostling or anything as we swam to the swim start.

proof that I was in the same place at the same time with Speedy Sonja

Swim

No count down, no announcements or anything.  Just a horn and a "oh, ok, its GO TIME".  Nice guys. Thanks.

My mission was to keep my head down and find feet.  I think I did an ok time of that.  My head was down and I found feet, but my effort was pretty comfortable.  In other races my effort was comfortable and I had really good swim times, so I wasn't too worried about it.  The water was clean and everyone was playing nice, which was really good.

Then came the first turn buoy.  And it became a bit chaotic.  I remember looking around as I sighted/breathed and seeing more than your average number of water support present and hearing a lot of voices.  That's not really a good thing.  The water was pretty choppy and I was having a hard time figuring out which side to breathe on.  Neither side was a good option and I took in water/air on the back leg and on the way back to the swim finish.  I found some decent feet and just focused on keeping my head down and swimming.  My shoulder also decided to play along and behave, so that was good as well.  My stomach wasn't very happy and I was burping and having an internal debate about puking.  I hate puking more than anything and decided to keep things down.  I heard more voices (this time from the swim announcer) and was happy that was done.  It was not a fun swim.

Swim stats:

Time: 40:03

Pace: 2:04 / 100 m

Age Group: 25 / 72

Overall: 504 / 1295

not my best but not my worst, either.  I'm ok with this, given the chop.  But maybe next time if I feel like I'm cruising, I should step it up a notch.

this is funny now, but I was NOT happy then.

Transition

I dropped my cap/goggles not once but TWICE.  The sunscreen I was using made me crazy slippery.  Even my tri shorts were wiggling around on my legs.

I got to my bike and wrestled with my stuff.  I forgot to undo all my velcro.  Shoes were velcro'd closed.  Got to my gloves and crap, THOSE were velcro'd closed.  Idiot.  And then I wrestled into my cool wings, which IMO were mandatory for me to wear but were also a HUGE pain in the ass to put on when you're wet and in a hurry.  This transition felt stupid long - and it was.

Time: 4:31

a bit happier now and trying to give a thumbs up

Bike
And it was game time.  I had hills to conquer and something to prove.  The plan was to keep my HR around 150-155 and to go a comfortable fast pace.

I got on the bike, took it easy over the bottle-launching speed bumps and enjoyed the nice ~2 mile descent and tried to get comfy.  There was a hill after that and I enjoyed climbing it, remembering how the hills nearly killed me in 2010.

I was trying to ride/eat/drink but things weren't right.  Sometimes my stomach gets cranky with me but it usually sorts itself out.  This time, it wasn't getting better.  Add injury to insult, my right adductor was also cranky and I had to pee.  Sucky, and I lost nearly 3 minutes doing this.  I stopped at the first aid station, stretched while waiting my turn, peed, and got back to business climbing the big hill.  Going up the hill was good, but not as fun as I was hoping, mainly because I knew this wasn't the day I had in me.  I passed 3 people, which was good.  My HR was around 167, which was ok but a bit high.  But I made it and it didn't kill me.  Yay.

The winds were there, but not ridiculous.  Still, they were there and I needed to stay down.  The good thing about all the climbing I do in training is that it makes me strong.  The bad thing is that I'm up on my hoods most of the time and my neck is not used to being aero for long periods of time.  I need to work on this for IM Boulder - I had a hard time staying down for more than 10 min at a time.  I did the out and back on 10 Mile, which was a headwind/tailwind.  My leg was bothering me again - lame.

I hit the world's worst-located aid station and got a water.  Seriously, this is such a dumb spot and I wish they'd change it.  You have a 90-degree left hand turn right to a fairly steep hill.  And they put the aid station in the middle of the hill.  I only had the dexterity to grab one water bottle and couldn't put it into my speedfill until the top of the hill (because I need to coast a bit to get this done).  I really needed 2 water bottles but that wasn't going to happen. And I had to dump my bottle after the last drop spot, which I hate, but the other option was getting off my bike.  The dumb part is that there's a very nice flat section at the top of the hill (maybe 1,000 feet after the aid station).  I have no idea why they do this to us athletes - it sucks.

Also by the time I hit this aid station, I was nearly 2 hours into my race and was STILL having digestive issues.  Every time I tried to drink my Osmo my stomach immediately responded with angry sensations.  Every time I tried to eat, same thing.  Being in aero didn't feel good.  And the pain was starting to move from my stomach to my intestines, telling me I had likely swallowed air as well as water.

I made the executive decision to ditch both the Osmo and my salty balls as nutrition.  Sure, they were my plan, but I wasn't eating or drinking these things and sticking with the plan was not working.  I chucked my salty balls (I only ate 2 (maybe) - I should have had 4).  I got my Honey Stinger chews out of my pockets and filled my speedfill with only water, hoping that a change would do me some good.

A bit after the aid station, my leg was continuing to be cranky so I stopped again to stretch - and lost probably another 1:30.  But by that point it was just a game of getting the bike done without causing damage to myself in the future.  I was a pretty sad panda, with thoughts of "triathlon is dumb" and "shit, I have to do double this in 8 weeks".

By this point, the hills were pretty much done and the water was going down cleanly.  I was a bit worried about my total calories though.  I only had 3 packs of chews - and only one of them was non-caffeine.  I was really worried the caffeine chews would make my stomach worse so I ate the other ones, all 160 calories of them and had ~2 or 4 of the caffeine ones.  The pains in my gut were turning into gas, but that issue was resolving itself as I rode, which confirms that I swallowed a bunch of air.  Really disappointing, as I've NEVER done that before and I'm usually really good with that sort of stuff.

The rest of the ride was just windy and I just tried to stay hydrated and eat what I could without freaking my stomach out.  I had wind to contend with and not wanting to stay aero.  And I was a bit loopy, from lack of calories.  There was one part on Warm Springs where there was a nice strip of new asphalt on the left and I causally drifted over there, looking for easier spots to ride.  I heard a loud "LEFT" as someone came up behind me and yelled at me (legitimately) to get out of their way.  They passed and I realized it was my cousin Jeff.  Ha!  I also was zoned out and too close to someone - I had an official zip up next to me on his motorcycle and that woke me up enough to get some muscle and actually pass the guy.  The last thing I needed was a drafting penalty on top of everything else.

As usual, the last 10 miles of "nice easy downhill to the finish" was solid headwind and it became a mental game to just keep pedalling and to stay down.  And to try and eat a few more chews.

Finally T2 appeared and I got off my bike.  Very disappointing ride, but on the good side, my stomach was actually doing a bit better.

Time: 03:35:09
Pace: 15.62 mph
Age Group: 42 / 72
Overall: 937 / 1295
*new stat* average HR - a whopping 149.  Umm... yeah.  

T2

This also seemed to take forever, probably because I didn't have many brain cells functioning.  I figured I had maybe 600 (more like 500) calories total on the bike. I should have had more like 900-1,050.  Fun!

Also not fun: leaving your hand-held water bottle on black asphalt to sit and bake all afternoon as you swim and bike.  That damn thing was BOILING.

What was actually fun: running up to my husband and giving him a kiss.  Normally I'm in "serious race mode" and wouldn't take time to do that.  Today, I figured my PR was shot and I owed him a kiss for his sherpa duties.

1. 
   

   Time: 3:13

Run
aka: lets see if I can redeem myself somehow in this race
aaka: you can actually run kinda fast when you don't really use your legs on the bike

So I came off of the bike with some pretty negative thoughts.  I decided to turn my head around and try to PR the run.  Or at least give it a good go until I bonked.

I had a few minor mishaps.

1. my boiling water bottle and no ice at the first aid station to cool it down.
2. neglecting to start my garmin when I started the run.  I *thought* I did but didn't realize it wasn't going for 0.25 miles.  So that made things interesting in terms of locating aid stations and mile markers
3. my HR strap inexplicably came undone and was hanging around my waist at the same level as my race belt.  There's no other way to fix it other than stop, put your stuff down, lift your top up and fix it.  So weird!

Once I got that out of the way, I just ran by feel.  I didn't give a whole lot of thought to heart rate other than to keep things sustainable, but I didn't slow things down if my pace was too fast either.  And I played some head games.  I normally walk at each mile marker to eat ~2-3 chews and drink a bit.  I did that.  But then the aid stations were a good ~1/3 mile after each mile marker, where I took the opportunity to get ice and dump it down my sleeves.  That was too much walking but my addled brain couldn't figure things out early on.

Finally maybe around mile 3 or 4 I realized I wouldn't die if I didn't eat RIGHT at the mile marker and told myself I could wait 3-4 more minutes and eat at the aid station.  I didn't consistently do this, but I did it enough where it really helped.  My splits were decreasing in pace and I felt pretty good.

Run 1	2.4 miles	00:25:52	10:46/mile
Run 2	5.7 miles	00:35:55	10:43/mile
Run 3	8.6 miles	00:29:05	10:12/mile
Run 4	11.7 miles	00:40:05	12:43/mile
Run 5	13.1 miles	00:15:46	11:40/mile

That's pretty solid!

The run course for Boise is actually really, really good.  Its pretty flat, goes along the river, and is shady.  And there's stuff to look at!  The "out" is a slight uphill and the "back" is on the other side of the river and is a slight "downhill".  There's a bunch of people out and some good opportunities for Sherpa's to catch you a few times to cheer.  I actually really love the run course and that's the main reason why I keep coming back to this race.

blowing my Sherpa a kiss halfway through the run

Around mile 8 I decided to take a hit of coke and that was a bad mistake.  Usually coke is fine but this was an instant rebellion.  At the far end of the run you go through a golf course and there was a bathroom right off the path.  I seriously debated using it but didn't, thinking I could tough it out.  I did, but I spent a good portion of the last 5 miles debating on finding a bush, or just jumping in the river and floating to the finish ("no one would notice!")

Around mile 10 I just ran out of gas.  The lack of calories finally hit me.  I had some muscle cramping and just needed to do more walking than preferred to get things done.  I wasn't sloppy bonky - but I was verging on it.  So I just kept moving forward, trying to talk myself into running a few minutes and then "look, the aid station is only another 4 minutes away, you can do it".  That seemed to mostly work.

And then the finish line came and I magically got some energy.  I always somehow awkwardly get behind people who are strolling through the chute, soaking up high fives and stuff.  I don't want to share my finish line photo with them but I don't want to slow down and hang out either.  So I zipped past the guys and got a wild hair and decided to try a Sonja-style jump.  I did pretty good.

I stuck the finish

Finish line video - I'm the bottom video, around ~57 minutes in (finish line clock around 7:12)

Time: 02:26:43
Pace: 11:11/mile
Age Group: 45 / 72  I only dropped 3 position on the run
Overall: 911 / 1295   I actually gained position on the run overall!  Yay!

Total time: 6:49:69

Closing Thoughts

I'm not really sure what I could have done differently to not have taken in so much water/air on the swim, but its something I'm definitely going to think about while swimming from this point forward.

What I'm happy with is my troubleshooting while riding.  I identified the problem and was flexible enough to pitch my planned nutrition (which was causing issues) and moving to a backup (which worked).

I'm also pretty pleased with my run - to have sub-11 splits and to descend them until I bonked is pretty good.

I'm not sure I'll go back and do Boise again.  This was my 3rd go at it and none of them have been great.  I do this race because its close to family and Will has someone to keep him company while I race (usually - although this year everyone was kinda shitty and didn't hang out with him.  In fact, they went for BBQ when I was finishing the run.  Not really cool).  

What I need to work on is mentally being ok with an average performance.  I had high hopes for this race and am really beating myself up over having the 2nd fastest 70.3 time instead of a PR.  

whiny

I've been trying to write this post for about a week and can't even manage to just get it done.  I am suffering from major whiny-ness and just general blahs.  BLAH.  And I don't know how to get past it.  Work is very blah (mind-numbingly, which is probably a bit part of the problem).  And then my IM training.  I'm getting my workouts done but there is a ridiculous amount of whining being done on my end.

For example:  the past Tue/Th bike workouts have been 1:30 or 1:40 in duration - and HARD.  This means I either have to get up at 5 AM to get it done before work.  Or I ride after work (6 PM) and then I don't eat dinner until 8, go to bed at 9, and get up at 5 AM for swim practice.  Ick.

Once I'm actually doing the workout, I'm fine and I'm doing well.  But getting to the workout is terrible.  I don't know if I'm burned out (shouldn't be) or tired (probably).  What I do know is that I have ~14 weeks until taper and I'd better get my shit together.

Really, I think if I was sleeping better, I'd be less whiny. I don't know why I'm not sleeping better (I'm blaming my cats) but the lack of sleep is getting to be soul crushing.  I'm getting to work and I'm just so tired that I want to stare at a wall and do nothing.  This is bad because I'm only up to 13-14 hours a week of training.  If I'm a zombie now.... I don't want to see how bad it is in 2 months.

I'm trying my usual motivation tricks.  Some new clothes.  New nutrition to try (Osmo and Feed Zone portables).  I got a bunch of new music to listen to.  And I joined a women's cycling club in Boulder so I'd make new friends and see new places on my bike.  That's all fine.  What I'm having a hard time with is the mental game.  The weeks upon weeks of workouts.  Days (sometimes twice a day) of workouts.  Always doing.  Always being tired.  For 4 months.

Maybe this is what happens when you're training for your 3rd Ironman and its an easier race on home turf? Its a challenge, but in the way that St George or CDA terrified me.  I have targets for Boulder and I want to do well, but I don't quite have the same fire under me.  Last year it was "I need to get going or I won't finish my race".  Every week I had a workout that was new and challenging.  I was seeing growth.  This year I'm still growing - my workouts are definitely more intense than they were at this point last year.  But I know the course and it doesn't terrify me.  The wind and heat terrify me, but I know that I can't control those things, so I'm really not spending much mental energy on it.

So, I'm just trying to find a way to stop being whiny.  Stop being tired.  And find my happy place in between the workouts.  If I don't, its going to be a long 4 months.

Frosty's Frozen 10 Mile Race Report

This is the second (or third, if you count both 10 mile races I did last year) time I've done this race, so I don't have a whole lot to write about.  I went into it wanting to improve on last year's races and hoping for a 10:15/mile split.  The goal was based upon my half marathon PR of 10:30 (from November's half ironman) and my 10k race last month. So that meant a race time of 1:41:30.  Hmmm.

Will actually wanted to run the 5 mile race (which is awesome and amazing) so we got to the race site at 8:30.  We found other AMC'ers, hung out, pinned on bibs and got them off to the start line.

I went back inside the lodge and messed around for a while until I saw some friends to briefly hang out with.  At 9:45 I got my stuff ready and headed out with a friend for a warm up - a full 30 min before the race start!  A first for me!  My plan was to run around to the last part of the run (the evil hill) and run to the finish with Will, but my timing was poor and I missed him.  I ended up doing 18 minutes of warming up, which is a new record and the closest I've come to doing my full 20-minute warm-up.

I managed to find Will when I was waiting for the start, say goodbye to him (he would have to wait nearly 2 hrs for me), and stand in the start area with my friends.  The plan was to do an easy build for the first 5 miles and hang on for the last 5 miles.  I had 10 oz of Osmo in my handled and 2 packets of Honey Stinger chews to eat during the race.  I also had my inhaler.  Good times!

I ended up running the first 4 or so miles with a friend, which was fun, except we ran WAY too fast.  My HR was really high but my effort didn't feel fast so I just went with it.  I felt rock star awesome up until mile 6, when things got hard.  I ran the first 5 miles straight then went to my 0.05 mi nutrition walk break every mile.

Mile 7 is when things started to get ugly.  I was having a hard time breathing so I had to use my inhaler.  It got caught in my tiny pocket so I had to walk a bit more than I had hoped.  Then running just became not super.  I sucked it up, mainly because I was also running to order #MegsMiles, a woman who was hit and killed Monday by a drunk driver during her morning run.  Those miles weren't fun, but I kept pushing because I was able to and Meg no longer could.

Around mile 8 I had my usual mile 20 Ironman thought, where nothing seemed better than curling up under a tree and taking a nap right then and there.

Mile 9 was another inhaler break.  I don't know what the deal was, I just could not get a real breath.  It sucked.  Then the final mile I just told myself to suck it up.  I was definitely running slower, but I told myself that slow running was faster than fast walking.

I hit the finish mat at 1:43:05, 1:30 slower than my goal.  According to my garmin, the course was long (10.09) which actually put me at a 10:12 pace.  So really, I should be happy.  But I'm not really.  This course is a slight downhill going out and slight uphill coming back, which makes it hard to negative split.  So I try to even split it.  Not even close.  My last 5 miles was 0:22/mile slower than my first.  Laaaame.

But I learned something. Don't run with friends in races!  And run slower!

I need to learn how to do cute poses while displaying my sponsor logos.  Bad athlete!

Post race I had to suck on my inhaler some more, which sent me into a really awesome multi-hour trembling fit from all the albuterol.  Will was napping in the car which meant I had to haul myself and all my crap (and my cramping legs) to the car solo.  And then we went to 5 Guys for burgers.  I was shaking so much that I had to brace my hands/burger on the table and eat like a little kid.  Not cool!

Not the best race, not the worst one either.  Definitely leaves room for improvement for the next 10 mile race in February.

Treadmill duty

The weather here has not been fabulous.  Its been stupid windy (Evergreen clocked a 100 mph gust last night - craziness!).  We've had really cold temps, or warmer but still cool enough for icy condition temps.

In a nutshell, I've been having to do most of my running on the treadmill because its either too cold, too windy, or too slippery to be outside.

ugh

My coach is a smartie (or really in tune with the weather) and has been writing my workouts with notes "this would be good for the tready".  Also: I think she's trying to kill me again. Or make me faster.  Either way, it feels like I might die when I'm running fast on a treadmill.

Last week I was trapped on the hampster wheel twice.  Twice!  Tuesday I had 2 x 6 min 10k pace intervals.  I decided to get it done at the gym in my office.  It's convenient.  But, as I learned, the thermostat is set on "office environment" and is way to warm for a gym.  I normally don't sweat a ton, but I was drenched after my hour run. Not a problem when I'm anonymous in a gym, but this was done in front of coworkers, including a senior executive who actually knows me.  Lovely.  Since I normally don't sweat much, I didn't have a towel for a shower.  I just wiped myself down with baby wipes and went back to my desk.  I think it was at least an hour before I stopped sweating.  I was so sweaty, my little hair-gripper headband was soaked.  Gross!

Friday was a workout which had 2 x 2.5 mi @ 10:00 pace (which is pretty fast for me).  I opted to use my gym membership (well, one of my memberships.  I belong to both Lifetime and 24 hr.  I prefer Lifetime and only have the 24 hr b/c its dirt cheap and good when I travel).  Let me tell you, Lifetime at 6 PM on a Friday night is party city....  I did my warmup and got down to business with my 2.5 mi repeats.  My MP3 player promptly died, leaving me without music and ~50 minutes of hard running.  I could kinda hear the gym music over my pounding (why am I so loud on the treadmill?) and I planted myself in front of the tv with the music videos.  I counted this as mental training.  Also: music videos are really, truly terrible.  Maybe that's my MTV doesn't play videos anymore.  They're awful.

I got home and my feet felt terrible.  My planar fascia was crazy tight.

Is it just me, or does your body react differently to treadmills?  Its like I run differently.  I don't think my body likes it.

Sunday was an easy run, so I did it on the trail by my house with Will.  Yay - outside!  The only tricky part was the ice.  Sure, it was 60 degrees the day before, but that water left puddles which were then ice puddles at 10 AM the next day.  Fortunately, we were running slow.  The weather was interesting... Sunny.  Then cloudy.  Then corn snow (the stuff that looks like little bits of styrofoam).  The snow was welcome because it stuck to the ice puddles, making them easier to see.  Going back to the house, things looked ominous.  Dark, low clouds.  Will made a comment about how the area west of us was getting hammered.  I thought it was just a low cloud.  Then we made a final turn back home and was hit upside the face with a wall of wind and HUGE snowflakes.  Will laughed because he was headed home.  I whimpered because I still had 30 minutes.  I turned around and did my harder intervals.  The cool thing about the trail is that is sits a bit lower than the rest of the area and there's a bunch of trees, so its protected.  The result was huge, puffy flakes (my favorite kind) swirling around me like a snow globe.  Seriously.  It was magical.  And then my last 10 minutes were in sunshine.  I think Colorado was on crack Sunday.

Today is another high wind today, so I'm back over at Lifetime after work for more treadmill fun.  I forgot my MP3 player on the charger at home.....  Hopefully I remember to bring my phone with me and headphones from work.

The funniest part: I'm thinking about doing the Dopey Challenge in 2015, which potentially means 20+ mile runs on the treadmill next winter.  What the hell is wrong with me?

Trying to stay inside as much as possible

Winter has finally arrived to Denver.  We got hit with a cold spell Tues night and we've been hoovering around 0 degrees (F) ever since.  Its beautiful with fresh snow and blue skies, but it is COLD.

To complicate my life, I whacked my right pinky toe on the coffee table Sunday night.  I didn't think I hit it that hard - it really didn't hurt that night.  But Monday morning when I was getting ready for swim practice, I put on my work shoes (as opposed to old running shoes) and couldn't take 3 steps.  Crapola.  Probably broken.  And I've got a 10k in a week (that I still need to register for) and ski season.  Right now, I can't fathom putting this toe in a ski boot.

toes are so ugly.  its hard to tell, but I had a DARK purple bruise.  Probably worse
than my CDA toe. also: you can still see my surgery scars

I ended up swapping my Tues and Thurs workouts around so I could put off my run until Thursday and give my toe a chance to de-swell.  I've also been wearing my bright pink Brooks PureFlows to work because they're the only shoes that have a wide enough toe box.  Not exactly classy with work clothes - or warm.  But it was either that or no shoes.

Yesterday my toe felt good enough to try running.  I ended up hitting the gym treadmill because it was maybe 5 degrees out and I didn't want to freeze-burn my lungs.  I ran last year in ~10 deg temps, and while it was AWESOME at the time, the next day I was hacking and wheezing like I was a lifetime smoker.  So this year, I'm going to try and be a bit smarter and run inside when its cold.  I also didn't think it was a good idea to run on slick surfaces with a potentially broken toe.  See, I'm trying to get smarter.

I am completely out of my routine for going to the gym for non swim practice type things.  I put my clothes on at home, grabbed a water bottle, got my gym ID out of my gym bag and headed out the door.  When I got to the gym, I realized I forgot my MP3 player at home and that my headband (to control hair whisps) was in my gym bag, which was also at home.  I didn't feel like driving home for these 2 important but non-essential things so I toughed it out and ran without them.

Fortunately, Thursday's run was intervals.  Intervals make the treadmill SO MUCH BETTER.  20 min warmup, 10 [ 2 min hard / 2 min easy], 10 min cool down.  Having something to do every 2 minutes made things so much better.

Surprisingly, my toe felt fine - like nothing was wrong.  This was only when I was running (weird, right?) and when I got off it was sore.  I hate icing body parts when its freezing out.  Sure, I'm inside on the couch, but mentally, I do not want to put ice of my foot in the winter.  Random aside: Zipper really likes bags of ice.  She'll lick the bag and I even caught her biting the thing.  Not cool because then ice cold water leaks out of the bag and onto me.  She's a weird cat.

Today, my toe was more sore than yesterday.  I went to swim practice, where my coach tried to drown us (9x100 with 6 underwater dolphin kicks off of each wall. that crap is HARD).  I had another 30 min run on my schedule today, so I just put my run stuff (this time with music and headband!) and ran right after swimming.  I knew that if I had to go back to the gym for a 30 min run in the afternoon, then I'd just skip the run.  So I got some mental toughness bonus points and got it done.  And my toe is a bit more sore, so I get to spend more time with an ice packet (and Zipper) today.

Running easy is pretty boring on the treadmill.  I try to make it a bit better by increasing the speed by 0.1 mph every 5 minutes.  Really, its just a trick to break the run up into 5 min increments instead of 30 life-sucking-minutes on a hamster wheel.

Sunday I've got a 1 hr run and I'm pretty sure it will have to be inside as well.  I am not very excited about it.

Powdr Shot Race Report

I found this very random race through an e-newsletter that I get.  It had a 70% off coupon making the race ~$20.  And Will was excited because they had a 3k option and he got to shoot guns.  Hey, whatever works to keep him motivated and running.  It also provided an excuse to head up to the mountains and do more running in prep for Ragnar.  We had some family/friends also enter the race and we brought our fishing gear for some fun afterwards.

Because my coach is good at her job evil, she had me running a bonus 1-hr run, up the big hill that I do on my first leg for Ragnar.  I decided that for logistics sake, it was easier to get up earlyish and do the run before the race.  Otherwise, I'd have to skip post-race beers/lunch to go run.  Fortunately, Will was ok with getting up there a bit early and only whined a little bit.  It helps that the biathlon started at 11, with shooting practice at 10.  With my pre-race run, that meant we had to leave the house at 6:45.  Totally doable.

I've been fighting a little cold all week, so I wasn't much fun on the ride up.  I think I slept for a good chunk of the drive.  We parked at Summit High School, which was good access for going up Swan Mountain Road.  I decided to do a little 10 min warm-up on the bike path before launching myself up the hill.

that, my friends, is a 6% grade for 1.5 miles.  solid!

I ran opposite of traffic and I was glad I was wearing a bright pink shirt.  There's a ton of cyclists but zero runners (go figure).  I didn't have any car close calls, fortunately, but I can imagine I surprised a few of them.

About half way up I had GI issues and had to hop over the guardrail and find a tree.  Random fact: pine branches aren't as scratchy as you'd think.  I blame my head cold because I never have issues like this.

I continued running up the big hill.  I ended up doing a run-walk pattern, maybe 1:1 or something around there.  I made it to the top in 20 min, which isn't awful (about a 13:20 pace).  I got to the top (yeah!) and there were a ton of cyclists.  The looked at me like I was crazy.... which is probably justified.  No one runs up that road.  Back down was really nice - I let gravity do the work.  Had some flashbacks of GTIS but my knees/quads were ok.  Total pre-race run was 5.28 mi at an average pace of 11:21.  Faster than my Ironman time - I'll take it.

I'm glad I did this run before Ragnar so I can get a gauge on how it felt.  Really, 20 min uphill isn't that bad, compared to other things I've done this year.  I'm glad that this hill is on my first leg - at the start of my run.  I can do it on fresh legs and the rest of my runs are flat.  I also didn't notice altitude, which was a relief.

We headed over to Copper Mountain for the Powdr Shot race and had a text message from friends who were already there, saying that this was a pretty casual event.  That was an understatement.  We checked in, somehow the guy already knew my name.  People loved our Pistols for Pandas shirts.  We learned to how shoot guns (air pellet rifles).  Chase and I decided it would be a good idea to do a run loop and then shoot.  You pretty much run UP the ski hill, then across, then down.  They said the run course was 1k but I'm pretty sure it was short.

two funny things: I think its hilarious the the google street view is from the winter.
I also think its hilarious that they basically had us run through the where the half pipe usually is.

I was actually getting the shooting thing down.  I could hit 3-4 of the 5 shots.

I had signed up for the 5k, meaning that I was supposed to run 1 loop, shoot 5 shots, then repeat that 5x.  I had to do a short penalty lap (see the little circle area in the areal image above) for every shot missed.  They had tags for us to pin to our backs that they'd remove as we crossed the "finish" line.  The order of tags in their stack = finish order.  There was no timing chip or anyone keeping track of total number or laps or penalty laps.  This was all on your honor.

They started the "Expert" (5k) group first, so that meant that Chase and I were up, with ~10 other people.  Somehow I was 2nd to last in the first 100 feet, going up the hill.  Really?  Ugh.  And going up was pretty steep.  Across was fine. Down was a rocky singletrack that had really tricky footing.  You had to go slowish or risk twisting an ankle.  It was also narrow which meant no passing.  Then you got down to the base, ran across the grass and shot a gun 5x.

I somehow missed all 5 targets.

I don't think my gun was shooting correctly.  No way did I miss that many legitimately.  This also meant I had 5 penalty laps.  Lame sauce.  So I ran around in circles (literally), completing my penalties and then started lap #2.  Chase lapped me up at the top.  Lovely.

So that was pretty much the race.  Shoot, do penalty laps, run up the hill, across the hill, down the hill and shoot some more.  Will and Chase's friend were doing the 3k so they finished while I still had 2 or 3 more laps.  They were nice and cheered, but it was really more annoying than helpful.  I walked up all of the uphills, sometimes trying to at least make it to the fence before the walking started.  That pre-race run really wore my legs out.  I did suck it up on the last lap and ran a bit more, but there was still walking on the steep bits.

Somehow I finished 2nd to last.  Behind the fat guys and the kids.  Will thinks I mis-counted laps, but I distinctly remember how many targets I hit with each round (0, 4, 3, 3, 2).  I think perhaps some people weren't so honest with their penalty laps or their overall laps.  But whatevs, I was there to run at elevation and that's what I did.

Random notes: the elevation (maybe 1,000 ft more than my earlier run that day) REALLY got to me.  Holy schmoley.  I was winded going up those hills.

Also: the "1k" loop was way short.  I did 13 penalty laps (ouch) and my garmin clocked my total distance at 3.12 miles.

The post-race awards were pretty cool.  Top finisher in each division got 2 free lift tickets (!!) and stainless steel engraved shot glasses.  Everyone else (regardless of finish) got a shot glass and we all got t-shirts.  Will got 3rd in his division.  Overall, a pretty sweet deal for $20.

We had lunch and beers at the Dam Brewery in Dillon and then tried to go fishing on a random creek behind a gas station at the Copper exit.  No fish and I was so tired that I literally couldn't be bothered to toss my fly around.  So I found a nice spot on the bank and laid down.  Chase eventually came over and said "that's not fishing!".  Sorta, I was fishing for zzzz's.

Rattlesnake Olympic Triathlon Race Report

Weekend #3 in August and here I am racing for the 3rd time this month.

And once again, I'm making things interesting for my coach by throwing in some races that really don't belong with my season goals.  Fun stuff!  The main reason why I was doing this race is because I registered last year but had to roll it over to 2013 because I broke my heel in 2012.  I signed up for the "Crazy Back-to-Back" which meant I'd be doing the Oly on Sat and the Sprint on Sun.  I knew I had the endurance and strength, thanks to IMCDA.  I just didn't know where my speed was.  Only one way to find out!

Pre-Race
Hurray, I get to sleep in my own bed and get up at 5 AM.  This race is about 25 min from my house, which is AWESOME.  I made sure I got there by 6 to ensure a good transition spot.  My triathlon club runs transition, which is always fun.  I chatted with some friends, got marked up by another friend for good mojo (complete with smiley faces).  We've had a ton of smoke in the area from fires burning in Utah and Idaho, so sunsets and sunrises have been pretty darn amazing.  This morning was no exception:

I was instructed by my coach to do a 10 min run as warm-up, so I grabbed a few club-mates and we went for a jog.  Then it was a final transition check to make sure everything was just so.  I was a bit of a dummy and only brought 1 package of Honey Stinger chews.  I decided to save those for the run.  Fortunately, I had some spare SunRype Fruit Strip bars (120 cals each).  They are really easy on your stomach so I decided to eat that on the bike.  I also had 50% diluted EFS drink mix to drink.

I had enough time to wrestle into my sleeveless wetsuit and take a a chug of my (really disgusting, but really effective) mixture of 100 cal Liquid Shot + 1/2 scoop of Pre-Race, which makes me feel like a rabid squirrel for the swim start.

I headed down to the swim beach and got in the water.  I was actually surprised with how cold it felt and wondered if my sleeveless wetsuit was a good choice.  I brought all 3 of my swim items.  My full wetsuit, my sleeveless (which I had bought 2 years ago but NEVER worn, even in practice) and my speedskin.  I stood there for a good minute, debating on if it was worth it to run back up the hill and wrestle on the full wetsuit.  I decided against it, which was the right call.  I did a few little out and backs, mainly to get used to the cold.  Then it was time to get in line for the swim start.

Swim
The one thing I'm not a huge fan of for this race is how they do the swim.  Its a time trial start, women first and then oldest to youngest, each 5 seconds apart.  The benefit to doing the Back-to-Back is that we get to go ahead of the people who are just doing the Oly race.  That means less standing around and (theoretically) less heat as the race goes on.

I was number 43 (yay!) and my group of women seemed pretty friendly.  After not much time, it was my turn in the start chute to go.  #42 went on, I got ready to go and they decided to hold me back to let the two people with rafts go ahead of me.  I wasn't happy but I also felt like an ass for not being happy.  These two guys were racing with their disabled kids, which is amazing.  But I was pissed because I had to stand there and wait for them to get set up and into the water, watching all hope of drafting off of someone head way out into the distance.  Boo.

Finally I get to go.  Nothing but clear water - not a person to draft off of, which has been my recent reason for swimming success.  The cool thing about this swim is that it is 2 "loops".  The first loop is more of an out and back - the trick is that there's a yellow rope keeping the out side separate from the back side, so you don't really need to sight (other than to gauge where the last buoy is).  You just need to follow the yellow rope.  So that's what I did.  A few times I was following a bit too closely and swam into the buoy (or swam under it).  But it worked pretty well.

The start of the 2nd loop was a bit crazy because they were still releasing age-groupers while we were whipping through.  I saw a friend of mine having a really rough go of it.  She was swimming breaststroke and looked panicked.  Every time she came up for air another arm would come over her head.  I asked if she was ok and she said yes and I kept swimming.  The rest of my swim was remarkably clean.  Follow the rope, no big deal.  The last leg split away from the rope but I must have done ok sighting.  My pace was a comfortable fast - a bit faster than IM but not so fast that I was dying.

Fingers touched the sand, I stood up and then it was a jog up the hill, through wetsuit strippers, and into transition.

Stats:
Time: 23:13 (for a 1500 m swim, including wetsuit strippers and  a pretty decent jog up the hill into transition). This is a near 4 min PR over 2011
Age Group: 10/37
Overall: 101/315

I know that the race director uses a laser sight to place the buoys, which is pretty much the best and most accurate way to get the right distance.  I am highly skeptical that the swim was really 1500 m though.  That puts me at a 1:32/100 m pace.  I can't really even do that all-out in a pool, much less in open water with an uphill jog at the end.  Hmmmm.

T1
time: 1:32

Bike
The goal for this bike was to push at a sustainable pace, but not to push so hard that I couldn't run a fast 10k or not leave anything for tomorrow's race.  Ideally, I wanted to stay in the big ring the whole time.

There's not a whole lot to report on the bike ride.  I got on Merlin and rode.  There were hills.  There wasn't really much wind, until the end.  Just riding on a course that I'm very familiar with.  I tried to stick to my big ring resolution but that only lasted through the 3rd or 4th hill.  I was burning my legs up too much.  So I used my small ring and spun up the rest of the hills.  This was probably the right thing to do as my right adductor was whispering to me and I didn't want it to get any worse with a another race happening in 24 hrs.

I did get a "nice bike" comment at the turn around.  Merlin is pretty. :)

The last ~1.5 miles are the worst, as they're mostly uphill on chip seal.  Ugh.  Then it was a nice quick downhill into transition where I was greeted with cheers from my club.

Stats:
Time: 1:28:59 (40k)
Age Group: 12/37
Overall: 176/315

I was actually a hair slower in 2011, which was on my other bike.  I'm a bit disappointed about this.  But when I look at placement, I'm actually placed higher than 2011.  So maybe 2013 was a slower year overall and I should just care about where I placed relative to other people?

T2
1:20

Run
The goal here to was to run sustainably hard and to limit walking.  My coach's actual words were "if you end up walking, then we're going to really need to talk".

I was running ok-ish.  I was running for a mile then walking 0.05 mi to eat/drink.  It was hot.  And hilly.  My HR was zooming up to 170 and I just wasn't feeling it.  I did pretty good until the turn around and then the hills and heat got to me and I walked more than was ideal.  One of my clubmates (who is also a coach) decided to really yell at me to run (he ran past me during one of my walk breaks).  It was actually rude the way he yelled at me - I'm not one of his athletes.  (he did apologize to me for the yelling afterwards, he was actually trying to motivate me)  Everyone else from my club was cool, we were all commiserating with each other, giving a high five, and whining about the heat.  The run turned out to be long.  My Garmin clocked it at 6.5 mile and the RD did admit that it was long.  I tried to do more running that last mile, but I don't know if I did.  My garmin ate the file, so who knows!

yay - its finally over!

I'm not super happy with the run, but I don't know if I really could have (or felt like) doing more.  Maybe if I didn't have a sprint looming over me.....

yep, that's about how I felt.  This is the 2nd week in a row that I've been photographed like this.

Stats:
Time: 1:08:13  (10:58 pace.  Or a 10:29 pace for a 6.5 mi run, which actually is a pretty decent pace for an Oly.  Hmmm, maybe I should quit being cranky)
Age Group: 23/37
Overall: 211/315

Total Race Stats:
Time: 3:03:03 (I think that's a cool number).  This is a 3-min PR from 2011.  Thank you fast swim time.
Age Group: 15/37
Overall: 173/315

Post Race
I didn't eat any of the food, because it was bagel sammiches and I was avoiding bread with a Sprint in less than 24 hrs.  I did have my recovery shake, another bottle of water, and a bottle of Gatorade.  I was thirsty!  We hung around for awards and then I hung around in transition.  Then I decided I should do my coach-dictated cool down (either a 10 min swim or 30 min bike).  I chose to swim in the lake with only my tri kit, which made it sorta like an ice bath (but not as cold).  When I came back, my friends were still there and they handed me a beer.  Sweet!

Then it was home to put my feet up, eat, and get ready for tomorrow's sprint.